Articles/Opinions

(Wednesday August 14, 2012) Lebanon Development Union (LDU) in collaboration with Microsoft Corporation and the Youth and Culture Center – Zouk Mikaël, graduated today, the fourth class of the Microsoft Corporate Citizenship: Community Technical Skills Program: Unlimited Potential, in presence of Mukhtara Josiane Khalil, President of the League of Mukhtars of Kesserwan-Ftouh, Eliane Fersan, Director of the Youth and Culture Center – Zouk Mikael, the trainees, as well as local community representatives.

A large number of women were trained in this intensive three-months-course on the basics of the Microsoft Office Programs that help them develop their skills by using information technology both at work and at home. This program is one of many women’s empowerment programs organized by LDU aimed at increasing women’s role in their local communities and societies.

During the graduation ceremony held at the Youth and Culture Center, a Zouk Mikaël municipal initiative, Crystel El Chayeb, Secretary General…

Lebanon Development Union, represented by its president Eliane Fersan, took part in the Euro-Mediterranean youth meeting held in Barcelona between 11 and 15 March 2013, hosted by the Xanascat Oficina de Juventud of Catalonia. The meeting gathered 30 participants form 17 Mediterranean countries who came together to share and discuss their social entrepreneurship experiences in their respective countries and create linkages and partnerships that foster social transformation.

The meeting organized by the Catalan Department of Youth and Family Welfare in collaboration with the Catalan Development Cooperation, consisted of training on social entrepreneurship and innovation, creative techniques, panel discussions, visits to Catalan organizations and cooperatives and encounters with Catalan governmental officials and EU Youth Council representatives.

LDU’s contribution focused on its efforts in “Building Better Communities” by supporting local governments in developing youth policies, building linkages across Lebanese borders and investing in women and youth as agents of change and transformation.

The…

Believing in Lebanon’s youth potential, and in support of its creative industry, Lebanon Development Union (LDU), in collaboration with the Youth and Culture Center (YCC) – Zouk Mikael organized a series of capacity building workshops for young talents and artists on interaction with the media, self branding and social media. This Anna Lindh Foundation funded program regrouped 30 young participants from throughout Lebanon on April 13, 20 and 21 and was supported by Kesserwen.org website.

LDU president Eliane Fersan stated “the need to invest in the creative industries is becoming imminent, for our youth are resorting to emigration or complete shift in their career path to other sectors because they do not find support and encouragement”. She noted that there are neither financial facilities nor the basic pillars for the creative sector such as a fast Internet service or governmental support, which is leading to brain drain in the Lebanese…

Lebanon Development Union (LDU) and Kesserwen.org website, represented by attorney Youssef Sfeir, participated in the “Citizens for Dialogue Convention: Euro-Mediterranean Youth facing crises & citizenship”, organized by the Anna Lindh Foundation from March 25 to 28, 2013 in Sousse – Tunisia.  The convention brought together fifty civil society activists representing different Euro-Mediterranean countries and was organized as part of the World Social Forum (WSF) held in Tunisia from March 24 to 30, 2013 regrouping 70.000 civil society activists around the world.

The convention offered several workshops on effective citizenship, youth involvement in public work and youth ability to face the crisis on the economic, social, environmental and political levels. Mr. Sfeir had two interventions in which he highlighted LDU’s main contributions at the local governments level: a) fostering local and rural development by building partnerships between municipalities and civil society in Lebanon with similar partners in Europe and America, b)…